


A Strange Thing Found

by undieshogun



Series: Crossing [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Spoilers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 16:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10834614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undieshogun/pseuds/undieshogun
Summary: Leo doesn't believe in ghosts, but getting to meet Takumi all over again does make him believe in second chances.AU where Leo, who witnessed Takumi's death in a world where Corrin chose Nohr, meets Takumi once again in the kingdom of Askr.





	A Strange Thing Found

**Author's Note:**

> It is better to have loved and lost...

They recognize each other instantly.

Kiran’s introduction dies on her lips when Takumi practically shoves her aside, thrusts a finger at Leo, and blurts, “ _You!_ ”

Leo, to his credit, doesn’t utter a sound. But it’s only because his voice has stuck in his throat, feet rooted in place as a cold dread creeps up his spine at the sight of the other.

Leo has never believed in ghosts. It’s a silly concept, invented by individuals of mediocre magical talent who are desperate to pass a hoax off with petty tricks and light shows that will earn them a penny or a name. There is no basis, scientific or magical, for their existence--what is dead stays dead.

“Prince Leo,” Kiran prompts softly, looking concerned.

Leo stares at Takumi, at long silver hair and dark eyes gleaming with indignation and gloved hands gripped tightly around a silver bow, and knows that this is no ghost.

Yet still, he has to repress a shudder, has to refrain from putting a hand over his mouth like he might be sick, if the churning in his stomach is any indication.

“I thought the two of you might know each other,” Kiran says quietly, almost apologetically.

But Leo has nothing to say to Takumi, and so he turns around and walks away.

-:-

During his time in Askr Leo has come to understand, as deeply as one possibly can, about how things work here. He knows that the gates Kiran opens lead not only to different lands, but to different realities.

 _It’s the concept of parallel universes,_ Kiran has told him and many of the other heroes. It’s a term Leo has never heard, but Kiran uses it freely, like it may as well be all the people of her world ever talk about.

There is an infinite number of realities identical to yours, but for a few discrepancies. They may be infinitesimally small, or cosmically large in scale.

Leo has encountered both sides of this scale. The Corrin he meets here was born in the winter, rather than in the fall like he knows the Corrin of his own world was. It is an inconsequential difference that neither of them would have noticed if it hadn’t happened to come up in a casual remark.

Others, Leo finds a little harder to swallow.  

 _I chose Hoshido,_ this Corrin told him during their first conversation together, because Leo had taken for granted that she’d chosen Nohr, and for all that she’d looked so terribly sad when she said it, there wasn’t a hint of remorse in her eyes.

And now, when she sees Takumi, there is a fondness in her expression that’s inexplicably different from the way she looks at Leo, but still familiar enough to make something in his chest ache.

 _I hope you won’t hate me_ , Corrin has said, many times.

And many times, Leo has replied, _I could never hate you_.

Because he still remembers all the times he’s seen the Corrin in his world, the Corrin that chose Nohr, exhausted and on the edge of breaking and asking herself if she made the right choice, losing so much more than she could have imagined and wondering if it would even be worth it in the end.

It’s not as though Leo doubts that this Corrin has struggled with the same insecurities. She won’t tell him and he won’t ask, but he can see it in the way her expression brightens with delight every time she sees Elise and Xander, eyes warm and hands reaching out as if to return to her grasp something that’s been long lost. She tells them every chance she gets, _I’m so glad you’re here_ , and clutches them in her arms like they’ll disappear the moment she lets go, as if they are merely specters, figments of her imagination.

It makes Leo wonder, though he hates to entertain such thoughts: if he were to grasp at Takumi and feel something real, would he be free of the weight on his shoulders, or would he come away and still see the same thing as Corrin does--a living ghost?

-:-

For a while, neither of them bothers with the other.

Kiran showers Takumi with attention, gifting him with powerful seals and often taking him into battle to train him with the other newcomers.

Leo doesn’t care. It’s the same treatment Kiran gives everyone in whom she sees potential. She’d done the same for Leo and his current brothers-in-arms (they call each other “teammates,” but he thinks it’s tacky and has never once subscribed to the term, although he can appreciate the sentiment). And he knows that Takumi has skill--even in this new world where they walk the same halls as living legends, he stands out right away as one of the army’s most indispensable soldiers.

 _It’s nice to be needed_ , Leo hears Takumi tell Kiran once. And as reluctant as he is to admit it, he knows the feeling.

So what unsettles Leo is not the fact that Takumi has won Kiran’s favor, but what will no doubt come of it in the near future.

His worries come to pass soon enough, when Kiran has the brilliant (and inevitable) idea of sending the two of them into battle together.

“Make sure you watch each other’s backs,” Kiran instructs, patting them both genially on the shoulder.

Leo and Takumi exchange glances. Leo frowns, but the look Takumi gives him is unreadable.

“I can watch my own back, thanks,” Leo replies.

Instead of saying something to the same effect, Takumi merely nods.

They set out, marching beside each other like this is how it has always been.

 

Leo has no idea how the battle pans out. He has time to raise his tome and fire off one spell before Takumi comes out of nowhere, careening into him with an alarmed shout and nearly knocking him right off his mount.

“Watch it!” Leo snaps, grabbing at his reins, temper flaring.

“ _You_ watch it,” Takumi retorts, and that’s the last thing Leo hears before he sees the flash of a blade in the corner of his eye and everything goes black.

-:-

Kiran has a policy of being there when heroes awake from psuedo-death at the foot of the summoning stone.

 _No one should have to come back from that alone_ , she believes.

Leo can appreciate the thought, and has maybe even come to find it touching, except that this time when he wakes, air punching into his lungs in a gasp as his eyes fly open, the first thing he sees is Takumi.

“What the hell,” he wheezes, voice creaking as he pushes himself weakly into a sitting position.

“Slow down,” Kiran murmurs from beside Takumi, putting a hand out.

Leo brushes it away, raising his eyes to glare at Takumi. “Nicely executed,” he bites out. “You might as well have put an arrow in my neck yourself.”

For a second, Takumi’s expression seems to fall--but then he bares his teeth. “Don’t tempt me,” he growls, and then he turns around and stalks away.

Leo scoffs as he watches Takumi go. The other doesn’t look back.

Kiran stays. “Here,” she says, holding her hand out again, and this time Leo takes it and lets her help him to his feet.

“What was _he_ doing here,” Leo asks as they make their way back to the castle together.

Kiran glances up at Leo, her expression somewhat troubled. “He wouldn’t tell me, but I think he came to apologize to you.”

Of all the explanations Leo expected, that was the least likely. “What makes you think that?”

Kiran shrugs. “Just guessing. He definitely _looked_ sorry after what happened.”

“I’ve never seen him look sorry about anything,” Leo says.

“Well, he’s not--”

“--from my world, I know.” Leo pushes away mental images of cruel eyes and a sinister smile. “Trust me, I can tell.”

-:-

After that, Kiran stops sending them into battle together.

But Leo doesn’t stop seeing Takumi. They live in the same castle, after all, use the same mess hall and have the same comrades.

It shouldn’t be awkward. They were never friends in the place, so it isn’t out of the ordinary that they don’t bother to so much as acknowledge each other when they cross paths.

Yet there’s something about the way they both quickly avert their eyes every time their gazes meet, the way they quicken their paces, that makes Leo feel as though there’s something in the air between them that’s slowly smothering the both of them.

But that all comes to a close one afternoon when they find themselves passing each other by in an otherwise empty hallway in the castle.

Leo isn’t sure what Takumi is up to and doesn’t care, but he has an appointment with some of the history archives in the library. He keeps his gaze locked forward and his stride even. It is Takumi’s steps which falter as the distance between them grows smaller, until he comes to a stop in front of Leo, blocking his way.

Leo sniffs and tries to sidestep him. “Excuse me,” he says.

Takumi mirrors him. “Um, can we talk?” he asks.

Leo narrows his eyes and looks down his nose at Takumi. Somehow, he expected this. “Did you need something?”

“It’ll just take a minute.” Takumi stares back at Leo with a distinctly reluctant look on his face, brows furrowed and lips pursed, but there is no real malice in his expression.

“Fine,” Leo says. “What is it?”

Takumi is quiet for a moment, reaching up to rub the back of his neck in what seems like a nervous motion. It makes Leo nervous as well, and that makes him impatient.

“I don’t have all day,” he prompts.

Takumi’s expression sours. “Do you have a problem with me, or something?”

Leo’s eyebrows go up. “What, that’s all you wanted to ask me? As if the answer isn’t obvious enough.”

“Look, I get that we’re fighting on opposite sides of a war in our worlds, but ever since I got here you’ve been doing nothing but giving me dirty looks. I haven’t actually done anything to you,” Takumi says. Then, more quietly, “We’re supposed to be allies.”

“Ugh, please,” Leo scoffs. “For all that we’ve seen here, there will never be a world in which you and I are allies.”

Those words seem to genuinely surprise Takumi, who darts his gaze away. “There is, though,” he mutters.

Leo hesitates at that. “Excuse me?”

“Ryoma--my brother. He says he’s from a world where Nohr and Hoshido fight together,” Takumi says. “And that you and I become--well, we get along. Mostly.”

“Oh, really? And if we’re no longer fighting each other then what, pray tell, are we fighting against?”

“He...he wouldn’t tell me,” Takumi admits, ducking his head. “Or, he couldn’t. Said something about not wanting to risk it.”

“Hm. How very convincing.”

Takumi hunches his shoulders stubbornly. “The point is that it’s kind of the same situation now, isn’t it? We’re not enemies here, so we might as well try to get along.”

It should be easy to give in, to say yes and shake hands and just see what happens. Because Takumi has a point. There is no Hoshido or Nohr here--they’re both soldiers of the Askran army.

But it’s just as easy to remember the feeling of staring down the tip of an arrow, a once pure blue light snuffed out and replaced by a cold, cursed magic that filled the air like a miasma; images of an enemy who brushed aside defeat after defeat and rose again, driven by the hatred that gleamed in his eyes, spilled out of him in the uneven lilt of his voice--

“I don’t have to do anything of the sort,” Leo says. “We may be fighting in the same army, but you and I will never be friends. It simply wasn’t fated to happen.”

He stares down at Takumi and waits to see that familiar hatred, to hear those cruel words that he had seen bring Corrin to tears time and again--

Takumi’s eyes are defiant as he holds Leo’s gaze, but there is none of the same unrestrained rage, none of that vindictive aura Leo has come to know so well; Takumi’s expression is measured as he merely replies,  

“Fine. Who’d want to be friends with a jerk like you, anyway.”

Against his own expectations, Leo bristles. But before he can reply, Takumi sidesteps him and continues on down the hall like nothing happened. Again, he doesn’t look back.

-:-

Camilla arrives in Askr on a warm spring morning.

The first thing Leo notices about her is the large scar on her face, crossing over the bridge of her nose, stretching down her cheek and up over the opposite eye. His Camilla never had such a scar, but he doesn’t know how to say it (isn’t sure if it matters), so he doesn’t, and just asks her about her world. He recognizes her a little less with every word she says.

 _It’s going to be a beautiful one_ , Camilla tells him, eyes gleaming in a way that he’s sure he’s never seen before. _One free of evil and filled with peace instead, starting with Hoshido and Nohr._

She tells him that she and their other siblings fight beside the Hoshidans, that they spend their days learning about each other and protecting each other in battle.

When Leo asks her what the Hoshidans are like, she tells him that they are rough around the edges, but kind and devoted. She has never once seen any of them falter, even in the face of everything they’ve suffered together.

When Camilla asks him why it is that he’s so curious, he thinks of Takumi and shakes his head.

It’s just a shame, he thinks to himself, to find out a little too late that there was always another choice.

-:-

It is a bizarre coincidence that they run into each other again in the exact same hall, except that this time it’s Leo who stops Takumi.

“Can we talk?” Leo asks in an accidental echo of Takumi’s request from their previous encounter.

Takumi notices it as well, and his lips curls into a grimace, as if he’s sure Leo is mocking him. “What do you want?”

Leo bites back a quip about Takumi’s attitude with some difficulty and forces out the words he’s been practicing in his head since this morning. “I want to apologize.”

Takumi’s eyes widen, as if he's been caught off-guard. “You do? For what?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Leo snaps on reflex, but then he backtracks with a sigh. “I mean--for the way I treated you the other day. You were trying to be sincere, and those things I said were uncalled for.”

Takumi blinks at him, still looking skeptical. “Okay,” he says slowly. “Thanks, I guess. Was that all?”

Leo frowns. “I’m trying to say that you were right. We should try to get along, if you’re still open to that.”

“I don’t really understand what brought this on, so I'm sorry if I’m having a little trouble keeping up with you right now,” Takumi says, raising an eyebrow.

Leo resists the urge to roll his eyes. “That hardly matters. The point is--I’ve realized that I was wrong for ridiculing you, so I’m apologizing to you now and offering you a truce. Do you accept or not?”

“Um,” Takumi says. He stares at Leo, gaze searching, but seems to pull up short. Still, after a slight pause he replies, "All right. Sure."

"Great," Leo says, a little suddenly. He wasn’t sure for a second if Takumi would actually accept.

They fall into silence, staring at each other for a moment before averting their gazes. Takumi shifts his weight between his feet and Leo adjusts his headband.

"I'll see you later, then," Leo finally says when he can handle the silence no longer.

"Oh--okay,” Takumi replies, and there is a distinct air of awkwardness in the air as they turn and go their separate ways.

Still, Leo can’t find it in himself to be skeptical about the feeling that the next time they talk, it will no longer be as enemies.

-:-

Change comes on fast. Kiran finds that Leo and Takumi work well together in battle after all, and soon they begin spending more time with each other outside of battle as well, learning about each other and their surprisingly numerous shared interests. Soon it becomes routine to seek each other out during their free time, catching each other after battle or taking their meals together at the mess hall.

For a while, Leo almost lets himself forget about malevolent demons and captured souls. Suzanoh feels like a distant dream--a nightmare that Leo is slowly waking up from.

But such things prove not so easy to shake off. He knows Takumi doesn’t miss the way he flinches sometimes when the other reaches out towards him, or stares at him during long, quiet conversations like he's looking right through him.

"What is it that I did to you?" Takumi asks one day out of the blue as the two of them sit together on a grassy hill at the edge of the castle grounds, looking out over the bustling city below. "The me of your world, I mean."

Leo stiffens. His first instinct is to say "nothing," because it’s the easy way out, but he knows Takumi will see through such a feeble lie.

"It's a little hard to explain," he says. "The person who shares your name in my world, wears your face and speaks in your voice...he's not really you."

Takumi gives Leo a flat stare. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Leo sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He somewhat regrets answering Takumi already. "Give a minute. I really don't know how to explain this."

Takumi lowers himself onto his back, staring up at the blue afternoon sky. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I've hurt a lot of people in my world, too."

Leo turns to look at him. "That’s not what I..." he trails off.

Takumi's eyes are closed, his bangs fluttering against his forehead in the slow breeze. But for the rise and fall of his chest, he is remarkably still.

There are some constants that, through some mysterious power, persist across realities, Kiran has told Leo. And as he watches Takumi lie there, he is struck with a bizarre curiosity. Will this Takumi have the chance to pass away with such a peaceful look on his face? Or is he, too, destined to die the death of a broken man?

Leo takes in a breath.

"In my world, something happened to you," he says.

Takumi's eyes drift open, deep brown warming into amber beneath the sunlight as he looks up at Leo and waits for him to continue.

"It happened slowly. Nobody even noticed it in the beginning. I thought you just resented us as your enemy--I felt the same way," Leo says. "But as the war went on, you started saying things, doing things...I didn't even know you, but it still felt wrong. There was this strange magic, this cold atmosphere that followed you everywhere you went. It was like you were...I don't know."

"...possessed," Takumi provides quietly.

Leo pauses, a little taken aback, then nods. "Yes, like you were possessed. How did you...?"

"I lied when I said I didn’t know what you were talking about,” Takumi admits. “It happened to me, too. Throughout the war, there was this voice in my head that wasn't mine, always telling me to do all these things I wasn't supposed to, didn't want to.”

Leo looks down at Takumi, studying him. Surely he doesn't need Leo to tell him he's nothing like the dark puppet Leo was describing. "I'm guessing you managed to find some way to lift this curse, or whatever it was?"

"It was Azura. Every time she sang, it was like her voice drowned out the one in my head, chasing away all the dark thoughts it fed me," Takumi says. "But it always came back. There was a point in the war when I thought I'd gotten rid of it for good, but sometimes I still have these dreams..."

"But those are just dreams, aren't they?" Leo says.

Takumi's lips curl into a sardonic smile. "I can only hope they stay that way."

"I had no idea," Leo says. "I'm sorry."

Takumi cocks an eyebrow at him. "Is that just a habit you have?" he asks. "Apologizing for things that aren't your fault?"

Leo scowls. "I was trying to express my sympathy."

Takumi chuckles softly at that. "All right, I get it." Then, he pats the ground next to him.

Wordlessly, Leo settles onto his back next to Takumi. Their shoulders touch, but neither of them moves away. For a while, they simply stare up at the cloudless sky together.

"I'm glad we got to meet each other in this world," Leo finally admits quietly.

If Takumi is surprised to hear it, it doesn't show in his voice when he replies. "Yeah? Why's that?"

Leo inhales and smells orange blossoms--the first of the season--but in his mind he still remembers the scent of bark and ashes in the air, the metallic sting of blood on the day Takumi fell before him at Suzanoh, flesh rent and bones shattered--

 _This is my second chance_ , he wants to say, but knows Takumi won't understand. Instead, he doesn't reply, and tries not to think about how even this is only temporary, and that when he returns to his own world it will be like none of it ever happened.

But it will be worth it, he thinks, if after going home he can close his eyes and think about Takumi and see a smile like the sun; if he can let everything from before fall away from his memory, like a past so distant it happened in another lifetime.

It won't be atonement--he doesn’t deserve as much--but it will be better than nothing.

-:-

They compare scars.

The battles they fight here don’t leave any, but the ones they gained in their own worlds remain.

Takumi runs his fingers gently over the marred skin on Leo’s hands, as if it might still burn. There is a heat there, sparking at Takumi’s fingertips and dancing along the trail they leave, but it isn’t from the scars.

“Magic always comes with a price,” Leo says when he sees Takumi’s inquisitive look. “Especially for something as powerful as a sacred weapon.”

“That’s cruel,” Takumi says, but isn’t surprised. Thin, pale scars lace across the backs of his own hands. Leo turns them over to see them on his palms as well, and pushes his sleeves up to find still more littered across Takumi’s forearms. He wonders how far up they go, but can’t bring himself to ask.

It _is_ cruel, Leo agrees silently, that they and so many before them grew up thinking it actually meant something to be chosen by a sacred weapon, only to start asking a little too late just what exactly it was they’d been chosen to do.

“Xander’s is like some kind of disease,” Leo says quietly. “It blackens his skin and spreads every time he uses Siegfried, like it’s rotting him from the inside out.”

“Ryoma’s scars look like dead trees. He says these days he loses all feeling in his hands except when he’s holding Raijinto.” Takumi looks up at Leo. “Do you think that’s going to be us? After the war?”

Leo doesn’t have the heart to tell him his hands started growing numb long ago. He closes his hand gently around Takumi’s and, when the other doesn’t protest, squeezes it once. Heat rises to his cheeks, and he lets go.

But rather than recoiling, Takumi slowly laces their fingers together. The palm of his hand is warm, the raised skin of his scars rough against Leo’s.

Leo looks up, eyes wide.

“Sorry,” Takumi murmurs, interpreting Leo’s surprise as aversion. He moves to pull his hand away, but Leo tightens his grip.

“Don’t be.”

-:-

There is something strangely liberating in the act of giving Takumi all that he has--his time and his affection and those gentle, quiet moments that until now he’d always reserved for his family only--he revels in the hushed excitement of letting Takumi steal kisses in empty hallways and stealing them back in dark corners of the library, and simultaneously dreads and looks forward to the day when he will have nothing left to give.

Because it will make it easier, he convinces himself, to say goodbye; he just hopes it doesn’t come too soon.

Takumi accuses him of thinking too much, but he does it too, when he thinks Leo doesn’t notice. His gaze grows distant, brow furrowed as he drifts away from the present. And when Leo brings him back, there is always a hint of sadness in his eyes that he brushes away with a small smile and a quiet apology. Leo doesn’t have to ask him what he’s thinking; they’re both plagued by the same useless, unanswerable questions.

Just once, Leo wants to hear Takumi tell him that they deserve to have this, as recompense for all they could have had but didn’t get in their own worlds, that they have every right to be holding so tightly onto each other even as the inevitability of having to let go looms ever closer.

But he knows Takumi is waiting for him to say it too, and they both know there’s no point.

-:-

On a quiet summer evening, as they sit next to each other on the hill behind the castle, Leo tries to say it anyway.

“Takumi.” The feeling of the name drifting feather-light from the tip of his tongue, like he could say it all day, is still foreign to him sometimes. He used to say it with such disdain.

Takumi turns to him. “Leo,” he replies, and the corner of his lip quirks up into a smile. “What’s with the long face?”

Leo grasps for the right words. “I’ve been thinking,” he says, to stall.

“As you do,” Takumi replies, though not unkindly. His gaze moves up towards the dark sky, but Leo can tell he’s listening.

Leo runs an array of sentences over and over through his head. None of them sound right.

A minute passes.

The sun set long ago, letting the night cast its dark canvas across the sky. It makes Leo feel like he’s losing time. Takumi glances up at him, patient. In that moment, Leo is struck with the sudden realization that there was something else he never told Takumi.

“In the days before I was summoned to this world,” Leo says before he can stop himself, “I saw you fall in battle.”

Takumi’s mouth falls open in a small “o.” He stares at Leo, expression too difficult to read in the dark. After a few tense seconds that set the hair on the back of Leo’s neck on end, Takumi asks, “At whose hand?”

Leo hesitates. When his lips come together to form the word, his voice catches in his throat.

Takumi reads the answer in his face and ducks his head in what Leo can only interpret as acceptance.

“I’m sorry,” Leo says when he finds his voice again, only it’s broken and comes out thick in the back of his throat. “I--I thought I had no choice.” The excuse is so pathetic in his own ears he wishes he hadn’t bothered with it.

But then he sees Takumi’s shoulders shake, and hears a quiet huff of laughter.

“Takumi…?”

Takumi looks up, and Leo starts when he sees the relieved smile on his face. “The day I found out I’d been betraying my kingdom all that time...So many people suffered because of me. I wanted to die.”

A chill runs up Leo’s spine. It is terrifying, hearing someone as strong-willed and vibrant as Takumi say those words. “I should have tried harder to save you,” he says weakly.  

“You _did_ save me,” Takumi says. “You made the right choice. I’m glad.”

Leo’s breath comes short--the tightness in his chest is crushing.

“Then why are you crying?”

Fresh tears spill from Takumi’s eyes, streaking down his cheeks. His lip trembles, and his smile disappears. “I don’t know,” he says, and he bites his lip to hold back a choked sob.

Leo takes Takumi’s face in his hands and kisses him, tasting salt as he presses his lips against wet cheeks, the corners of his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “Takumi, I’m sorry.”

Takumi leans into Leo’s arms, burying his face in Leo’s shoulder and holding him tightly as he cries. His chest jumps against Leo’s with every stuttered gasp he takes in, a pitiful sound that tugs at Leo’s heartstrings and makes his own eyes sting with warm tears that he doesn’t bother wiping away.

They sit there for a long time, until Leo feels feels an ache starting in his back. Takumi eventually goes quiet in his arms, bouts of feeble sniffling petering off into soft, even breathing as exhaustion pushes the tension from his shoulders. Thinking he’s fallen asleep, Leo says softly,

“You don’t have to forgive me.”  

But then Takumi shifts slightly, a hand coming up to grip the back of Leo’s shirt. “I don’t blame you.”

Leo looks down at the same time Takumi lifts his head, and their eyes meet. During those three seconds where neither of them looks away, Leo wishes he could stop time. Then Takumi lowers his gaze.

“That...thing that possessed me. It chose me because I was weak,” he says. “I really am glad that you stopped me before I could hurt anyone else.”

“Takumi,” Leo says, but Takumi cuts him off.

“I mean it,” he says in a voice that brooks no further argument. He breathes in, and lets it out in a shuddering sigh. “It’s just…This whole time, I was thinking that once you went back to your world, maybe you’d be willing to find me and give me a chance. But I guess that’s impossible now.”

And there it is again, that weight in his chest that feels like something is trying to pull his heart down into his stomach.

“I’m sorry,” is all Leo can say, never mind that it rings hollow in his ears.

Takumi just smiles, eyes gentle. “No more apologies.”

“You ask the impossible of me,” Leo says.

Takumi goes quiet, expression turning contemplative. Absently, he takes Leo’s hand in his and locks their fingers together, movements slow like they were the first time he had done it. “How about this,” he says after a while. “I’ll accept your apology if you promise you won’t forget me after we’ve parted ways.”

This time Leo is the one who laughs, his breath leaving him in an incredulous huff. “Do I really need to tell you how many nights I’ve spent seeing you walk my dreams and waking up wishing you’d stayed a little longer? I couldn’t forget you if I tried.”

Leo takes quiet delight in the deep blush that colors Takumi’s cheeks--Takumi ignores it valiantly and juts his chin out. “In that case, you can also get on your knees and grovel.”

Leo rolls his eyes, but doesn’t bother hiding the smile the pulls at his lips. “Is that really the best you could do?”

“Oh, were you expecting worse? Because I still have plenty of other--hey!” Takumi cuts himself off with a yelp as Leo suddenly lurches forward, sending him toppling onto the grass with a _thump_. Squeezing Takumi’s waist between his knees, Leo leans down and catches his lips in a long, slow kiss before pulling away to murmur,

“Will that do?”

Takumi’s mouth turns down in an almost comical pout, but it only lasts for a brief moment under Leo’s gaze before it melts away into a fond smile. He snakes a hand around Leo’s neck and pulls him down to press a chaste, lingering kiss against the corner of his mouth.

“Getting there,” he says, and Leo laughs as he rolls onto ground beside Takumi.

When Takumi turns to face him, Leo reaches out and picks a stray blade of grass out of the other’s hair. “When you go home,” he says, letting the grass flutter onto the ground between them before reaching up for another, “after the war is over, find me.”

Takumi’s expression pinches with uncertainty, and he hesitates before he replies, “That Leo doesn’t know me.”

“If he’s half as smart as I am, he’ll want to,” Leo promises. “Desperately.”

Takumi scoffs at that. “Well, here’s hoping he won’t be half as full of himself as you are.”

“You think I’m handsome when I brag.”

“I think you get on my nerves when you brag.”

Leo snickers, and Takumi laughs with him. But as they once again fall into silence, Takumi’s smile falters.

“It won’t be the same. I’ll still miss you.”

“He’ll understand,” Leo reassures him. “And he’ll love you all the same.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“I don’t, but still--promise me you won’t let yourself be alone after we say goodbye, Takumi.”

“...Okay,” Takumi relents. “I promise.”  

The look in his eyes tells Leo that he means it, and it’s enough for Leo.

-:-

Parting ways is as easy as Leo hoped and feared.

They have nothing left to say to each other but a soft goodbye whispered into the space between them. Leo takes Takumi into his arms and holds him so tight both of them lose their breaths, but neither of them lets go.

He closes his eyes, buries his nose in Takumi’s hair, and tries to ingrain the scent of jasmine oil into his memory. Takumi hugs Leo with all his might, arms trembling like he’s holding on for dear life.

And in the next moment, it’s over.

They smile at each other one last time, a silent agreement to keep the promises they’ve made.

Then Leo takes a step back, and Takumi is gone.

-:-

A swift but warm breeze sweeps across the burial grounds of Castle Shirasagi, plucking the petals off the last blooms of the season and whisking them into the air.

Leo watches them dance above the graves, and doesn’t look away until hears the sound of footsteps approaching.

He turns, and inclines his head respectfully as the newly crowned Queen Hinoka joins him in front of a gravestone carved from jade.

“I hope your time at Castle Shirasagi hasn’t been boring you, Prince Leo,” she says, though not unkindly.

Leo shakes his head. “I just thought I’d take some time to come pay my respects.”

Hinoka hums in understanding, and turns to look down at the gravestone. Her gaze moves slowly, almost reverently over the inscriptions. From this close, Leo realizes that the color of her eyes is strikingly familiar; he has to look away.

“This is actually the first chance I’ve had to come here since the end of the war. I’ve been so busy,” Hinoka says. Her voice trembles minutely. Leo doesn’t comment on it. “It already feels like it’s been so long since I last saw him--the real him, I mean.”

“What was he like?” Leo asks. “Before all of this.”

Hinoka stares at the gravestone for a moment longer before she seems to register Leo’s words. She turns to him. “What did you know about him?”

There is a cold, dim fear in her eyes as she braces herself for the worst.

But all Leo remembers is gentle, scarred hands and freckle-spotted cheeks, warm beneath his lips; eyes bright with mischief and determination in equal measure, a strong and even voice that carried bold words but always softened with adoration when it carried his name, and--

“He was beautiful,” Leo says. “He had a smile like the sun.”

**Author's Note:**

> proofread once and then was too #sad to go any further. much appreciation to those of you who can find it in your heart to forgive any errors or otherwise bad writing. 
> 
> For reference, Suzanoh is the name of the fort where chapter 23 of Conquest takes place. 
> 
> title taken from the song Beside You by Phildel


End file.
